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Gauteng Department of Agriculture failed to protect Gauteng wetlands from pollution

The Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s entity, the Green Scorpions mandated to maintain and preserve our environment, is constantly failing to protect our wetlands from pollution.

The Bonaera Park Wetland in Kempton Park is one of many wetlands across the province that have been polluted by raw sewage due to an old sewer line.

The situation has gotten worse, and 90% of the wetlands in Ekurhuleni are under threat due to sewage spills. Work had started on installing a new sewer line, but the contractor has abandoned the site, and raw sewage is still flowing into this wetland. Residents are affected by the stench coming from the wetland.

In 2020, the Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote to the Gauteng MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Morakane Mosupye, about the raw sewage spilling into the Bonaera Park wetlands. However, to date, nothing has been done to resolve the issue.

The Blesbokspruit River has also been polluted because of the current situation.

In a reply to the DA’s written questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to the MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mbali Hlophe, the Green Scorpions have a total budget of R49 629 000 for the 2023/2024 financial year.

Despite executing several successful operations across the province that have resulted in arrests and fines being issued, it is worrying that our wetlands are still in such bad condition.

This wetland in Bonara Park used to be a major attraction in the area, with hundreds of flamingos frequenting the wetland and many faunal species. However, due to the current state of the wetlands, the flamingos and other fauna species have disappeared.

The DA will once again engage the MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development on this matter and seek the Green Scorpion’s immediate interventions to preserve our wetlands.

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DA to conduct oversight inspections at Inxiweni and Silwerkroon Old Age Home in Ekurhuleni

Today, Thursday, 29 June 2023, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Shadow MEC for Human Settlements, Mervyn Cirota MPL, the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Human Settlements, Evert Du Plessis MPL, the DA Shadow MEC for Social Development, Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL and Cllr Philip Thanahane, will be conducting an oversight inspection at the Inxiweni RDP houses in Tembisa and the Silwerkroon Old Age Home in Alberton.

The Silwerkroon Old Age Home is currently not fully utilised. Eight rooms are standing empty due to a lack of funds to pay for the painting and maintenance of these rooms. In addition, the residents who are currently housed at the old age home do not have their needs attended to and have not received a visit from a social worker in two years.

In Inxiweni, residents have been waiting for title deeds since 2009. According to the Department of Human Settlements, the land on which the RDP walk-up flats have been built has not been subdivided. This means that title deeds cannot be issued, despite the department promising residents that they would start issuing title deeds after our oversight inspection last year.

The media is invited, and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.

Details of the oversight inspections are as follows:

Oversight inspection 1

Date: 29 June 2023
Time: 10:00
Location: Silwerkroon Old Age Home, Alberton

Oversight inspection 2

Date: 29 June 2023
Time: 11:00
Location: Inxiweni, Tembisa

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DA congratulates Andrew Lesch on his election as Ward Councillor in the Tshwane by-election

The DA in Gauteng congratulates newly-elected Tshwane ward 83 councillor, Andrew Lesch, on his victory in the by-election today. We are delighted with Andrew’s election and believe the election result proves voters’ ongoing faith in the DA in Tshwane as the DA grew by almost 2,7% in voter support.

Lesch won the by-election comfortably with 72% of the vote – a clear vote of confidence in his abilities to serve the residents of ward 83.

Lesch is a retired South African Police Service Brigadier, part-time lecturer and has served in various leadership positions in community-based organisations and civil society. The DA is proud of the calibre of its councillors and Lesch strengthens our Tshwane caucus.

The win in ward 83 is not just a victory for the DA but also strengthens the multi-party coalition in the Tshwane Metro Council. With Lesch’s addition to the council the coalition now once again holds an outright majority.

The DA is satisfied with its performance in the by-election and that it provides muc needed momentum for the DA in Tshwane and Gauteng as we gear up towards the 2024 election campaign.

The DA remains committed to the people of Tshwane and Gauteng and we will continue to fight hard for service delivery, to root out corruption and to restore our broken economy.

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DA to conduct oversight inspections at Inxiweni and Silwerkroon Old Age Home in Ekurhuleni

Tomorrow, Thursday, 29 June 2023, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Shadow MEC for Human Settlements, Mervyn Cirota MPL, the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Human Settlements, Evert Du Plessis MPL, and the DA Shadow MEC for Social Development, Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL, will be conducting an oversight inspection at the Inxiweni RDP houses in Tembisa and the Silwerkroon Old Age Home in Alberton.

The Silwerkroon Old Age Home is currently not fully utilised. Eight rooms are standing empty due to a lack of funds to pay for the painting and maintenance of these rooms. In addition, the residents who are currently housed at the old age home do not have their needs attended to and have not received a visit from a social worker in two years.

In Inxiweni, residents have been waiting for title deeds since 2009. According to the Department of Human Settlements, the land on which the RDP walk-up flats have been built has not been subdivided. This means that title deeds cannot be issued, despite the department promising residents that they would start issuing title deeds after our oversight inspection last year.

The media is invited, and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.

Details of the oversight inspections are as follows:

Oversight inspection 1

Date: 29 June 2023
Time: 10:00
Location: Silwerkroon Old Age Home, Alberton

Oversight inspection 2
Date: 29 June 2023
Time: 11:00
Location: Inxiweni, Tembisa

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Over 35 000 chickens died in Gauteng due to load-shedding

Over 35 000 chickens have died, and more than 5000 were culled due to load-shedding in Gauteng.

This is causing the price of chickens to go up as poultry farmers cannot keep up with the supply and demand from retailers.

This information was revealed in a reply to the Democratic Alliance’s questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to the MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mbali Hlophe.

The MEC further revealed that broiler farmers are the hardest hit by the ongoing load-shedding.

This is because broiler farmers require more electricity during the first week of the chick’s placement to maintain the required temperature using infrared lights.

Furthermore, the growth rate is affected because chickens are non-nocturnal feeders. During load-shedding, there won’t be light, and chickens are unable to eat. Once feed intake is affected, the growth rate will be compromised.

Load-shedding negatively impacts farmers with egg-laying chickens because the egg grading machine requires power to grade eggs into different sizes.

Delays in grading eggs will mean that the farmers will not be able to meet the high market demand, resulting in business losses.

Load-shedding has also provided the perfect opportunity for criminals to steal equipment like borehole pump motors, electrical cables, and transformers.

In addition, load-shedding has cost poultry farmers around R2 million. The poultry farmers have also incurred additional costs through procuring backup power.

Load-shedding has an impact not only on the unemployment rate in the province but also on the price of basic food.

The DA will continue to push for broadening the zero-VAT food basket to include essentials like bone-in chicken, beef, margarine, baby food, and soup powder.

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Nine officials implicated in Tembisa Hospital contracts are still at work

No action has been taken against 9 officials at the Tembisa Hospital six months after a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report recommended they be disciplined for the irregular award of contracts to fraudulent companies.

This bombshell information was disclosed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to the MEC: “The Initiator of the Gauteng Treasury has been appointed to initiate the process” and they are “still awaiting the finalisation of internal processes.”

The nine officials are still at their jobs at Tembisa Hospital. This includes the Deputy Director: Supply Chain, two Financial clerks, an Admin clerk, a Food Service Manager, Assistant Manager Nursing, Chief Physiotherapist and Physiotherapist, and a Medical Officer.

I am astounded these officials were not speedily suspended and disciplined. How can they still be at their jobs earning salaries when the evidence against them is readily available in the SIU report made public in December last year?

The lack of action is utterly deplorable. It follows the one-year delay in disciplining the Tembisa Hospital CEO Dr Ashley Mthunzi who was suspended in August last year but will only face charges of corruption in August this year. This was after media investigations revealed that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran tried to stop R100 million “possibly corrupt” contracts at the hospital, and flagged other transactions worth R850 million.

The SIU found that fraudulent suppliers were irregularly appointed at the hospital, and this involved possible fraud and corruption in the supply chain process. They identified payments worth more than R1 billion to “syndicates” of business people with fake companies that grossly overcharged for products.

I suspect there is deliberate foot-dragging to protect certain ANC politicians who benefit from the massive corruption at Tembisa Hospital.

Meanwhile, patients suffer because money goes to greedy people instead of providing decent healthcare.

The DA calls for the immediate suspension of the 9 officials and swift discipline to show that maladministration will not be tolerated.

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R115 million wasted on uncompleted wards in Gauteng hospital

R115 million was spent at the Kopanong hospital in Vereeniging on wards meant to be used for the Covid-19 pandemic, but not a single one has been completed and the Gauteng Health Department has no plans for what has been built.

This is revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to the MEC, the wards are all incomplete because the appointed service provider was unable to finish the project and their contract was terminated.

(Photos taken by DA Emfuleni Councillor Daddy Mollo can be seen here, here and here).

The original plan in 2020 was to rapidly build 300 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients using Alternative Building Technology (ABT), but it fell way behind schedule and was never used.

There was also controversy because the contractor failed to pay subcontractors.

Now the Department says they are “reviewing the structure for possible use as office space for the District.”

This project has been a monstrous waste of money that should have been used to fix existing public hospitals.

It’s yet another example of gross incompetence by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID) which routinely chooses poor contractors who fail to finish but still get paid huge amounts of money.

As usual, corruption is suspected and the MEC says GDID are investigating the issue.

The DA has yet to see any real consequences from these never-ending “investigations”.

Nearly R2 billion in total was wasted of money released for the Covid-19 pandemic, including R500 million on the abandoned Anglo Ashanti Hospital on the Far West Rand.

A complete management shake-up is needed to clear up the rot, but this will never happen under the ANC as they provide political protection to corrupt and incompetent people.

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Gauteng Provincial Government has no plan to end e-Tolls

There appears to be no end in sight for e-Tolls in Gauteng.

The e-Toll contract has been renewed until the middle of June. There is a possibility that this contract will be extended once again, even though Premier Panyaza Lesufi has assured residents that e-Tolls are a thing of the past.

The extension of this contract means that the current debt owed for the e-Toll gantries will increase and residents will continue to be billed for this unwanted system.

It is worrying that there has been no further communication regarding the Gauteng Provincial Government’s (GPG) portion of the debt that needs to be paid.

GPG has not yet finalised the financial model for the replacement of e-Tolls. This means that the province has committed to debt for which it has no idea how to service.

Inevitably funds will be taken away from other departments and service delivery in the province will continue to suffer.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be tabling questions to the MEC for Roads and Transport, Kedibone Diale, to determine what plans have been put in place since the announcement that e-Tolls have been scrapped.

The DA will continue to fight any proposal for an additional tax on our residents.

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Premier Lesufi misled NPOs about funds reprioritisation

The Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi and the Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Mbali Hlophe, have once again misled Gauteng NPOs about the reversal of the reprioritised funds.

This is because the department is restricted to virements of 8%. Virements would allow the department to transfer money between similar programmes.

To reverse the reprioritised funds which are more than 8%, the department needs to apply for approval from the national treasury.

The reversal of the NPOs’ reprioritised funds should have happened immediately after the announcement by the Premier and MEC on the issue.

Even though many affected NPOs have received their funding, there is still a risk because this payment will be classified as fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the Auditor General.

Furthermore, this will have a detrimental impact on the current funding of NPOs in the province. This indicates that the Premier and MEC have misled the NPO sector about the reversal of the reprioritisation of funds.

The DA has tabled questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain whether the department has sort approval to deviate from the 8% virements to address the reversal of the reprioritisation of funds.

We will continue to ensure that this department follows proper procedures in the reversal of the reprioritised funds to protect the vulnerable who are solely dependent on NPOs for survival.

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DA welcomes an extension of the online application deadline

The DA in Gauteng welcomes the extension of the closing date for the online admissions for the 2024 academic year for Grades 1 to 8 learners. We urge all parents and guardians to use this opportunity to apply for their children’s placement.

Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has announced that online admissions will close on 21 July 2023.

This extension will allow parents to submit all necessary documents in time.

We are pleased that GDE has already processed over 400 000 applications for Grades 1 and 8 learners.

The department must ensure that the remaining applications are processed accordingly with urgency.

The DA demands that GDE ensure all learners who applied on time are placed before the end of October.

We also encourage parents to use this opportunity to ensure that no learner of school-going age will be sitting at home when the academic year starts next year.

We believe this process will meet parents’ expectations to place learners closer to where they stay or work. This will ensure learners can participate in extra mural activities such as culture, arts, and sports. This process must ensure that learners don’t spend most of their time commuting to and from school.